Best Buy Cutting 2,000 Management Positions

Best Buy Co. reportedly is cutting as many as 2,000 management positions in the wake of underperforming winter holiday retails sales.

The Minneapolis-based No. 1 consumer electronics retailer notified 500 middle managers last week about the impending cuts, seeking to redistribute power at the local level to store managers, according to The New York Post, which cited an internal memo from CEO Hubert Joly.

Best Buy has previously disclosed it would terminate 950 employee positions in its Canada operations.

The chain in January said winter holiday sales in the United States slipped 1.5% to $9.7 billion during the nine-week period ended Jan. 4. Same-store sales (open at least 14 months) dipped 0.9% after analysts had projected a gain of 0.7%.

Same-store consumer electronics sales dropped 6%, while in entertainment, which includes music CDs, movie discs, digital imaging and MP3 players, sales declined 6.6%. Computing and mobile phones sales increased 3.2%, which Best Buy characterized as “disappointing” given the marketing push during the holidays.